The English Place-Name Society

The English Place-Name Society (EPNS) was established in 1923 to conduct a county-by-county survey of the place-names of England. The first county survey of Buckinghamshire appeared in 1925.

To date, the Survey has produced 90 volumes, the most recent being The Place-Names of Leicestershire Part VI, published in 2014. Almost all English counties have been surveyed at least in part and work to complete the Survey is ongoing.

The Survey is used by researchers, academics, and those interested in the origins, meaning, and significance of English place-names.

Membership

The Society always welcomes new members, both personal and institutional.

In return for the annual subscription, full members receive free of charge the current issue of the Journal as well as the volume of the Survey allocated to that year's subscription. They are entitled to a concessionary price on any other available volume of the Survey.

Associate members receive the Journal, and have some options on the Survey volumes.

EPNS News

The English Place-Name Society is delighted to introduce the Alfred Oscroft Essay Prize for undergraduate work on place-names. A prize of £250 will be awarded annually for the best submission, and £100 for the runner-up.

Following the recent publication of the Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland, Prof. Peter McClure of the INS was invited by the thirty Directors and CEOs of INEOS, the international petro-chemicals company, to talk to them at their London headquarters about their own surname histories.